Lot 260, A russet-splashed black-glazed 'partridge-feather' bowl, cover and tea bowl, Jin Dynasty. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

the bowl of deep U-shaped form, supported on a slightly splayed foot, the exterior covered with a lustrous dark-brown glaze irregularly splashed in russet-brown similar to 'partridge-feather' mottles, stopping unevenly above the foot to expose the buff-fired ware, the domed cover surmounted by a stalk-shaped knob, similarly glazed, with a brown glaze applied to the both the interior of the bowl and underside of the cover, together with a similarly-glazed teabowl of broad form (3). Diameter of bowl 5 1/4  in., 13.5 cm

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 14th November 2001, lot 73.

Notes: Partridge-feather glazes were produced at a number of Cizhou-type kilns in Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces in the Northern Song and Jin dynasties, and various versions of these covered bowls are found within the Cizhou tradition.

A small number of similar russet-splashed ‘partridge-feather’ covered bowls are known, with variations in their form, finials, application of glazes and slip suggesting various locations of production. A related bowl and cover, formerly in the Falk Collection, is raised on a shorter foot with the inside of the cover entirely unglazed and was included in the exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers. Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1995, cat. no. 39. Two covered bowls in the Meiyintang Collection are each raised on a foot similar to the present example but also have the interiors of the covers unglazed, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, pl. 462. Further covered bowls of this type are found in the Tokyo National Museum, see Tōkyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku: Chūgoku tōji hen / Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1988-90, vol. I, pl. 617; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, published in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 161; and another formerly in the Alfred Clark collection was included in the exhibition Sung Dynasty Wares: Chün and Brown Glazes, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, cat. no. 118. See also another formerly in the collection of Frederick M. Mayer first sold in our London rooms, 13th December 1977, lot 379 and again in the same rooms, 15th July 1980, lot 61.

Sotheby's, Important Chinese Art, New York, 16 mars 2016, 10:00 AM